Rearward facing or so-called ‘back-up cameras’ will soon be required on all newly manufactured vehicles. The quality of the image and the data captured by such cameras can vary depending on a number of factors. For example, cameras may gather less data regarding a driver's surroundings based on, among other things, the sensitivity of the camera's detector or imager and operation in darkness or in low-light conditions.
Thus, it is desirable to improve the performance of the camera detector by illuminating a region of interest behind the vehicle so that the camera gathers more light and consequently gathers more data regarding the vehicle's surroundings.